Hachi Yatsuhashi launched manga adaptation in September 2021
© Hachi Yatsuhashi, Ruby Party, Shinobu Takayama
The January 2024 issue of Ichijinsha‘s Monthly Comic Zero Sum magazine announced on Tuesday that Kin-iro no Corda: Starlight Orchestra Comic, Hachi Yatsuhashi’s manga adaptation of Koei Tecmo Games’ Ruby Party brand and Aniplex‘s Kin-iro no Corda: Starlight Orchestra (La Corda d’Oro Starlight Orchestra) smartphone game, will end in the magazine’s next issue on December 27.
Yatsuhashi launched the manga in Monthly Comic Zero Sum in September 2021, with Shinobu Takayama credited for the character design. Ichijinsha published the manga’s first compiled book volume in March 2022, and the third volume on June 23.
The game launched for iOS and Android in February 2021.
CloverWorks handled the animation for the game’s animated sequences. Takayama is the character designer. DISH// performs the game’s theme song “Birthday.”
The game centers on a violinist who is in the General Education section of Seisō Academy, when she meets Ginga Ichinose, who is aiming to win the “International Student Orchestra Competition.”
The latest major game in the series, La Corda d’Oro 4, shipped in Japan in February 2016, and continued the story from the La Corda D’Oro 3 game. The La Corda d’Oro Octave game for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita, and PC (via Steam) launched in February 2019.
The franchise inspired a 26-episode television anime series in 2006, and a two-episode television special sequel, La Corda D’Oro ~secondo passo~, aired in spring of 2009. A third anime, La Corda d’Oro Blue Sky, premiered in 2014 and ran for 12 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed all three anime and Sentai Filmworks released La Corda d’Oro and La Corda d’Oro Blue Sky in North America.
A new arc launched for Yuki Kure‘s Kin-iro no Corda Daigakusei-hen manga in Hakusensha‘s LaLa DX magazine in June 2021. The new arc portrays four different parallel “endings” to the original La Corda d’Oro story with Kahoko ending up with each of the four male leads of the story: Tsuchiura, Shimizu, Yunoki, and Hihara. The manga’s “Multiending Arc” ended in October 2022, and a new arc titled “Encore Arc” started on February 3, depicting the epilogues of each respective ending shown in the “Multiending Arc.”
Source: Monthly Comic Zero Sum January 2024 issue
